It turns out that these almost realistic looking graphics processing is at the same par of software that is used to simulate the formation and behavior of proteins in the body. This ultimately leads to studies that could cure a lot of diseases.
When your PS3 is down, it connects to the Internet to process this data.
A network of PS3s would run even faster. Pande said that a network of 10,000 PlayStations would increase speeds by a factor of five, and 100,000 would be 50 times faster than what they can do today.
"It turns two years into one month, and that's a huge thing for us," he said. "It's more than us just being impatient, there are calculations that we don't run right now because any calculation that would take more than two or three years, we don't even start it."
To participate, users will just download a program into the PS3's hard drive. Then they just need to leave the machine on when they're not playing. The Folding@home team will divide their complex calculations into manageable chunks and then send it to the participating machines. The program and data will take up 10 to 20 megabytes - or about the size of a handful of MP3 files, Pande said. (source)
Sponsored link: Because not all tools can be stored in your biz - Philadelphia Locksmith
Comment Preview